A former Chief Risk Officer, Retail Banking, for HSBC in the UK, Martin was latterly Chief Risk Officer for the bank’s operation in Latin America, based in Mexico City, where he managed credit risk for over 6 million people, across 12 countries in Central and South America with a staff of 5,000.

Following his time in South America, Martin was most recently Head of Strategy for Equifax, the consumer and business insight experts, steering the company’s UK strategy, including product development through a period of economic and market changes and shifting patterns of consumer behaviour.

His earlier career saw him responsible for managing the whole risk lifecycle from analytics and strategy to collections and recoveries in senior management posts at some of the UK’s blue chip organisations, such as Marks and Spencer Money, MBNA, HBOS Card Services and Standard Chartered Bank.

Castlight Financial was established in 2014 to provide financial retailers with an innovative digital affordability platform through which their customers’ suitability for credit could be assessed by taking into account their expenditure as well as credit ratings data.

Says Martin:

“What attracted me to working with Castlight is a very real conviction that this is an incredibly relevant product, which is ahead of the game. There will be more scrutiny from regulators in the future, and rightly so, but perhaps, more importantly, this is a product which is simply financial common sense. And I want to be a part of it, because I have seen how credit, when used properly, can open up all sorts of opportunities for people, but I have also seen how it can destroy people’s lives when used irresponsibly or carelessly. Castlight’s technology introduces openness and clarity into the lending process and allows lenders to have more meaningful and informed conversations with their customers. The process generates a huge amount of intelligence and results in better and more accurate, credit decisions – if Castlight had been around when I was Chief Risk Officer for HSBC, I would have been the first person to buy into it.”

Phil Grady, Castlight’s CEO is delighted to have secured Martin Hagerty as Chairman. He says:

“Martin’s extensive experience and forensic knowledge of the industry will be a valuable asset in helping us shape Castlight’s product range, in targeting new markets, sharpening our competitive edge and most importantly, delivering ever more relevant solutions to both financial retailers and consumers.”